Hip Hop 101 terminology

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Hip hop is all about the magic and music of words. So it’s only right that hip hop fans take a minute to brush up on the rich terminology of the genre.

Think back to the earliest days of your fandom. Remember when your friends spoke animatedly about the latest rap album, and they started spewing jargon that just went over your head? As a new rap fan at the time, you simply nodded in agreement as your buddies raved about the rapper’s “flow,” not to mention their “internals” and “dope verses.” But then, they added, this particular album wasn’t up to par with the emcee’s first “mixtape.”

Yep, we’ve all been there. You might have even wondered if “emcee” referred to a sharply dressed master of ceremonies. (Spoiler: it doesn’t. “Emcee” has become widely used as a synonym for “rapper,” so that’s that.)

Whether you’ve been a fan of hip hop music for quite a while, or you’re just beginning to admire the many wonders of the rap game, you’re in for a treat in this special Hip Hop Insider piece. We’ve put together a list of terms—a glossary, if you will—that’ll help you appreciate the music, culture, and industry that is hip hop.

As you read Hip Hop Terminology 101, you’ll get to distinguish an EP from an LP; you’ll go through snippets of poetry and music that are interwoven with your favorite rap songs; and you’ll find out if a punchline in a hip hop track is exactly the same as the punchline of a Kevin Hart joke.

That, by the way, was an allusion. While “allusion” might be one of the first entries in a typical glossary, that won’t be the case in this piece. Rather than present the terms alphabetically, we have organized them conceptually, so that you can better understand each term in context.

Get it? Got it? Good. Here we go!

SECTION 1: The Anatomy of a Rap Song

Let’s begin with the basic structure of hip hop songs. Generally, hip hop songs consist of verses and a chorus, along with a hook. These songs usually have a bridge as well.

Verse

This is a primary section that typically consists of 16 lines. (In traditional poetic texts, this would be the equivalent of a stanza.) A verse can advance the story being told; express heartfelt emotion; brag about accomplishments; or contribute in some other way to the bigger picture being presented by the song.

Chorus

This is a recurring section that encapsulates the primary idea or emotion fuelling the song. Just like in other genres, the verse-chorus-verse-chorus pattern is popular in hip hop.

Is the term “chorus” synonymous with “hook?” Not quite. While the chorus is a distinct segment of the song, the hook is any catchy musical element that is prominently used from start to end. Hooks can come in the form of a line, a series of lines, a short uttered sound like “Ooh,” or a chunk of the instrumentation.

To dive deeper into this difference, listen to the monster hit “A Milli” by Lil Wayne. Can you pick out the hook and the chorus?

The chorus is a simple one-liner: “Motherfucker, I’m ill.” This line pops up after the first verse, and again after the second verse. Meanwhile, the hook (“A milli”) is sprinkled just about everywhere in this song. While not every Lil Wayne fan can recite the verses of this track off the top of their heads, all those loving devotees of Weezy F. Baby have glued the phrase “A milli” to their subconscious.

Bridge

This refers to a section that is clearly contrasted with the verses and chorus. The contrast can be achieved by a different sound quality (like, say, a change in delivery, tempo, or key); or even a shift in the story or emotion conveyed thus far in the song. The bridge freshens things up, such that the song is not confined to a simple back-and-forth between verses and the chorus.

Eminem’s “Not Afraid” provides a great example of a bridge in a hip hop song. Notice that, in the first half of the song, Eminem rapped two verses and sang the chorus in between. After the second chorus, he switches things up by singing something else: an adamant pledge that begins with “And I just can’t keep living this way/So starting today, I’m breaking out of this cage”

By now, you must have noticed that all four of these structural components (verse, chorus, hook, bridge) are prominently used in so many other genres of commercial music. What, then, distinguishes a hip hop track from, say, a rock song or a country song? While there are obvious differences in terms of the instruments and apparatus used by each of these genres, I’d consider flow to be a key distinguishing quality of rap.

Flow

In his 2018 book Listening to Rap: An Introduction, author Michael Berry gives a concise definition: “Flow most commonly refers to the synthesis of musical rhythm and lyrics.” Berry also quotes the definition given by music professor Kyle Adams, who proposes that flow is “all of the ways in which a rapper uses rhythm and articulation in his/her lyrical delivery.”

In other words, flow is the unique way in which a rapper uses their voice to add musicality to the various parts of a song. Rappers usually showcase various flows within verses, but they can also elevate their chorus and set their bridge apart by using flow.

In the history of hip hop, the evolution of flow during the ’80s was a turning point. Earlier that decade, most rappers employed simplistic rhythms that hardly maximized the beat of their songs. But, thanks to the emergence of trailblazing artists in the ensuing years, rap songs became more rhythmically fluid, which in turn led to more fans falling in love with the genre.

Listen to this pair of ’80s hits, and you’ll hear the unmistakable progression of flow during that decade. Both of these songs are certified bangers, but they tickle your ear drums in different ways.

When you compare these two songs in terms of flow, the difference is night and day. On the one hand, Kurtis Blow’s 1980 track “The Breaks” is essentially a dance track, so he employs a basic rhythm in his verses to serve the song’s purpose. On the other hand, Rakim’s flow on his 1987 classic “Paid in Full” is a marvel in and of itself. Notice the quantity and movement of syllables across beats, along with the well-measured pauses that enhance Rakim’s vocal instrumentation.

There are other elements that contribute to a rapper’s unique flow. In the next section, we’ll dive into the bag of tricks that rappers use to set the mic on fire.

SECTION 2: The Craft of Sensational Sounds

If you’ll recall, Berry (2018) pointed to both rhythm and lyrics as the key components of an emcee’s flow. Let’s focus on the latter.

A rapper’s choice of words doesn’t just shape the content of their song. It can also determine how each structural component—verses, chorus, hook, bridge—will sound to the audience. By devoting extreme attention to detail in the selection of lyrics, a rapper can create flows that will mesmerize anyone who listens to the song.

Since “extreme attention to detail in the selection of lyrics” is quite a mouthful, let’s go with the much shorter phrase sound devices.

I think you have a clear idea of which sound device I’ll begin with, but I’ll switch things up a bit. To me, the easiest sound device to understand is repetition.

Repetition

By repeating a word or phrase in predictable intervals, the rapper achieves a sense of order in their rhythm. On a deeper level, repetition allows the rapper to emphasize an idea, emotion, description, or event.

Two classic variants of repetition are anaphora and epiphora. Anaphora is a repeated word or phrase that occurs at the beginning of successive lines. If the repetition occurs at the end of successive lines, it’s epiphora.

When I think of these sound devices, the first track that comes to mind is 21 Savage’s “a lot” (featuring J. Cole). I find it amazing that 21 Savage seamlessly combined all three—repetition, anaphora, and epiphora—in one song.

The hypnotic repetitions hit you right off the bat. After a brief spoken intro, 21 Savage goes right into a pre-chorus in which he asks “How much money you got?” four straight times. He then launches into a question-and-answer chorus laced with both anaphora (“How many times…”) and epiphora (“A lot”). (The entire chorus, of course, is a repetition as well—a recurring segment throughout the song.)

Now that we’ve gone over recurring phrases and lines, let’s talk about sounds and syllables that pop up in quick succession. Yes, we’ll be tackling rhymes now.

Just like repetition, rhyme functions as a connective tissue that helps the song achieve a cohesive sound. Let’s look at the different categories of rhymes used in rap songs.

Perfect Rhyme

This is achieved when two or more words have an identical stressed vowel; and when all the sounds after the vowel are also identical across these words.

Imperfect Rhyme

This occurs when the words in question have an identical stressed vowel but different consonant sounds; or identical consonant sounds but different stressed vowels.

To make this distinction clearer, let’s examine these lines from Big L’s 1994 single “Put It On”:

I run with sturdy cliques

I’m never hittin’ dirty chicks

Got thirty-five bodies, buddy, don’t make it thirty-six

Big L achieves perfect rhyme with the last word of each line here (including “thirty-six,” since the stressed vowel of this word is “six”). However, notice that the words “bodies” and “buddy” have similar consonant sounds (“b” and “d”) but different stressed vowels (short “o” and short “u”). Thus, “bodies” and “buddy” make up an imperfect rhyme.

Did you catch two more types of rhymes in this example? If perfect and imperfect rhyme are distinguished by the replication (or lack thereof) of vowel and consonant sounds, these next two categories are determined by the rhyme’s placement within the structure of the song.

End Rhyme

This is a rhyme that occurs at the end of successive lines. In the example from “Put It On,” the words “cliques,” “chicks,” and “thirty-six” created an end rhyme.

Internal Rhyme

This is a rhyme that unfolds within the same line. In the excerpt, the words “bodies” and “buddy” created an imperfect rhyme; not only do these words inhabit the same line, but they are actually placed next to each other, thereby heightening the rhyming effect.

On a more complex level of rhyming, a multisyllabic rhyme unfolds across two or more syllables (as opposed to the one-syllable rhymes illustrated in the example from “Put It On”). At this point, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the master of “multis” and just about every other rhyme: The Notorious B.I.G.

Seriously. Just listen to all of Biggie’s syllables making magic.

Alongside repetition and rhyme, the sound devices known as assonance, alliteration, and consonance help to make a rapper’s flow nice and tight.

Assonance

This refers to the recurrence of a vowel sound among syllables in close proximity.

Consonance

This refers to the recurrence of a consonant sound among syllables in close proximity.

Alliteration

This is achieved when a consonant sound occurs specifically at the beginning of adjacent words.

Nas blends assonance, consonance, and alliteration to perfection in his 1994 single “N.Y. State of Mind.” Peep these sound devices in this passage from the second verse:

Be havin’ dreams that I’m a gangsta, drinkin’ Moëts, holdin’ TECs

Makin’ sure the cash came correct, then I stepped

Investments in stocks, sewin’ up the blocks to sell rocks

Note the recurrence of the short “a” sound in the first line and the short “e” sound across the second and third lines. Nas also fires off three consecutive words that begin with the hard “c” sound (“Cash came correct”). Right after this, he spams the “s” sound across different syllables (“Then I stepped/Investments in stocks, sewin’ up the blocks to sell rocks“).

As you can tell, rappers can use all sorts of combinations consisting of repetitions and recurring sounds to achieve exceptional sonic quality in their various flows. However, while a rapper’s first order of business is to make a song sound good, they also have to achieve depth by maximizing the different aspects of meaning conveyed by language.

SECTION 3: The Rich Depths of Language

In hip hop, a song can be hailed as next-level greatness if it packs rich content as well as sensational sounds. While the forerunners of today’s rap songs did convey some substance, the bar has since been raised with the steady proliferation of imagery, figures of speech, and other poetic techniques within the genre.

Imagery

In the context of a rap song, an image refers to lyrics that are meant to evoke any of the five senses. (Yes, you read that right—imagery isn’t just visual!) Simply put, a great rap song can make anyone see, hear, feel, taste, or smell anything.

Take, for example, the Jay-Z song “Empire State of Mind.” Just close your eyes and let the Brooklyn native take you on a lyrical tour of the Big Apple.

Did you taste the Mai Tais as you soaked in the roar of the crowd at the Knicks-Nets game? If you did, Jay-Z’s imagery was able to do its thing.

Schemes

A scheme refers to a set of adjacent lyrics that are bound by the same theme or category. If a rapper is witty enough, they can make a scheme about anything and everything under the sun…including, well, poop.

You can smell this kind of greatness from Eminem (yes, Eminem again) in his guest verse on the Royce Da 5’9″ track “Caterpillar.”

And when I’m producing them lyrical bowel movements

These beats are like my saloons

‘Cause these bars always got my stools in ’em

And I don’t need Metamucil to loosen ’em

Bitch, shit is real like I pooped Jerusalem

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s five terms related to excrement. This hilarity is nothing short of genius.

Amidst all the doodoo discourse, you may have also noticed a classic figure of speech in that passage. And you nailed it: “These beats are like my saloons” is indeed an example of simile, an indirect comparison that employs words such as “like” or “as.”

Did you think that figures of speech were found only in the poems of 19th-century stalwarts like Blake and Wordsworth? Look around the hip hop realm, and you’ll see a host of other poetic devices being harnessed. These include:

  • Metaphor—This is a direct comparison that is achieved without the use of connective words (in contrast to similes, which use “like” or “as.” On the song “Ab-Soul’s Outro,” Kendrick Lamar made us all nod in agreement when he used this metaphor: “Life is a traffic jam”
  • Personification—This is the attribution of human actions and qualities to non-human objects. There’s no better example of this than Nas’ famous proclamation: “I never sleep, ’cause Sleep is the cousin of Death”
  • Hyperbole—This is exaggeration that is not meant to be literally. Ye’s probably proud of himself for spewing this line: “I emit the propane I just spit, probably just raised the gas prices” (He can’t actually emit propane, can he?)
  • Pun—This is a witty or humorous play on words and phrases. Once upon a time, Big Sean used wordplay to brag about his car: “My homie wanted a Chevy, so I put my dog in the ‘Vette” (with “‘Vette” evoking both a Corvette and a veterinarian, the type of doctor that you’d take your dogs to).
  • Allusion—This is a reference to a prominent figure, object, or event. Nicki Minaj put all her rivals to rest when she alluded to the greatest basketball player of all time: “You’ll never be Jordan, you couldn’t even be Pippen”

In terms of song structure, these figures of speech can be used to create punchlines, which are lines meant to create an impact and draw a response from the listeners. A punchline is usually preceded by one or two lines that serve as a set-up. It should be clear, though, that punchlines in hip hop don’t always draw on humor. A punchline can be a clever culmination fuelled by wordplay or some other figurative deployment of language.

Here’s a basic example of a set-up followed by a punchline. In his guest verse on Chance the Rapper’s “No Problem,” 2 Chainz dropped this:

School of hard knocks

I took night classes

In the first line, 2 Chainz set up the term “school.” He then makes a pun of it in the second line when he claims that he took “night classes” at the fictitious “school of hard knocks” (which is perhaps a reference to the rough circumstances that he had to overcome in his rap career).

To conclude this section, we should all remember that hip hop songs don’t just have the potential to be mind-blowing poems. They can also be intricately written memoirs or novels—in other words, worthy vessels of story-telling. Just like any good story, a rap narrative should have compelling characters with a distinct point of view; an interesting conflict; and a plot with a beginning, middle, and end.

Story-telling happens to be one of the best qualities of rap’s biggest icon, the legendary Tupac Shakur. Do yourself a favor and listen to “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” If that story doesn’t move you, nothing will.

(Of course, if you’d like to express your appreciation for an emcee who has achieved both great sound and outstanding substance, you can go ahead and say, “They’ve got BARS.”)

Section 4: The Industry of Intense Competition

So let’s get this straight: if a rapper masters all these technical elements, they’re guaranteed to become superstars in the music business, right?

While musical and poetic brilliance is a great asset to have, the emcee still has to navigate the ins and outs of the hip hop industry. The commercial side of things (which includes the distribution and marketing of the rapper’s projects) is incredibly important, as are the rapper’s dynamics with their executives, peers, and fans.

Here are some industry-related terms that every emcee (not to mention every rap fan) should be familiar with:

  • Sampling—The act of taking a particular element from a pre-existing track and using it in one’s own song. Producers may sample a chunk of another track’s instrumentation, melody, beat, or vocals.
  • Feature—An appearance by a guest artist or collaborator, who is contributing a verse, chorus, or piece of instrumentation. In song titles, featured artists are acknowledged through the abbreviation “feat.”
  • EP and LP—An extended play or EP usually contains just 4 to 5 tracks, clocking in at around half an hour of playtime. Meanwhile, a long play or LP is what we would usually refer to as an album, containing even more songs that amount to a runtime of 45 minutes or more.
  • Mixtape—The objective of this project is to help the audience get familiar with an artist’s musical prowess. Since mixtapes are marketing tools, they have been traditionally distributed for free (though, in recent decades, mixtapes have been sold for profit as well).
  • Discography—The entirety of a rapper’s music projects, which include EPs, LPs, mixtapes, and features
  • Record label—A company that distributes recorded music and manages the artists that comprise their music catalogue. Record labels usually have in-house producers who help rappers put together their songs and albums (from both a musical and conceptual standpoint).
  • Gold, platinum, diamond—These are certifications handed out by the Recording Industry Association of America. Albums and singles that have moved 500,000 units (in terms of physical copies and digital equivalents) are certified gold. For 1,000,000 units moved, the certification is platinum. For each subsequent million, the album or single is deemed 2x platinum, 3x platinum, and so on. The rare accomplishment of moving 10,000,000 units is rewarded with a diamond certification.

After taking a comprehensive look at all of these hip hop words, I’d say that the best way to wrap up this piece is by discussing a term that has come to mean different things across the decades.

I am talking, of course, about freestyle.

Chances are, you’ve seen the video of The Roots’ Black Thought igniting the mic for 10 minutes straight on Hot 97. Believe it or not, this staggering performance satisfies not one, but two definitions of freestyling.

To keep a long story short, people have come to understand freestyling as the act of spontaneously spitting lyrics over a rap beat. While lyrical improvisation is certainly a wonder to behold, this is not what freestyling meant during the time of Big Daddy Kane and Kool Moe Dee.

Both of these ’80s icons were quoted by Complex reporter Shawn Setaro in a 2017 article, where the curtains were finally pulled back on the somewhat lost definition of freestyle. According to both Kane and Kool Moe Dee, a “freestyle” during their day and age was a rap that had little to no restriction in terms of topics covered. Kool Moe Dee hits the nail on the head in his 2003 book There’s a God on the Mic: according to him, freestyling had “no particular subject matter and no real purpose other than showing your lyrical prowess.”

I’d wager good money that, in his awe-inspiring appearance on Hot 97, Black Thought was going off the top of his head for much (if not all) of the time. And it takes just a single listen to realize that he wasn’t limiting himself to a singular topic. In other words, during that awe-inspiring freestyle, Black Thought talked about whatever he wanted; and he did so with unparalleled poetic and musical brilliance.

At the end of the day, that’s what hip hop is about: a mesmerizing marriage of rhythm, lyrics, and unabashed confidence. For every emcee, critic, or fan who’s just starting to love this spell-binding genre, knowing hip hop terminology by heart is a great way to get things poppin’.

FAQs

Question: What’s the difference between a rapper and an emcee?

Answer: In a 2012 appearance on Sway in the Morning, gangsta rap pioneer Ice-T explained the classic distinction between these two terms. According to Ice-T, an emcee is characterized by their ability to “move the crowd,” while a rapper is exceptionally skilled in creating and performing hip hop songs.

Though I appreciate the historical background that Ice-T brought to this definition, I’d say that this distinction between rapper and emcee has been blurred over the years. Nowadays, hip hop artists live up to both standards: putting on powerful performances that can electrify a live crowd, as well as crafting songs imbued with outstanding poetic and musical quality.

Question: What is beef, and is it juicy?

In the context of hip hop, “beef” refers to a conflict between rappers who duke it out through subtle (and not-so-subtle) lyrics, entire songs, and even harrowing situations in which there is a risk of serious injury or even worse. Typically, rappers involved in a beef exchange subliminal insults or even full-length songs called diss tracks. Some of the “juiciest” hip hop beefs of all time include Tupac Shakur vs. The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z vs. Nas, 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule, and Nicki Minaj vs. Cardi B.

Question: Rappers say “Word up” quite frequently. What does it mean?

Answer: “Word up” is an expression of assent. It can mean “That’s right” or “You got that straight!”

Sources

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